Rating: PG
Genre:
Thriller
Release Date: 10/26/2004
SubTitles: English/French/Japanese/TH
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1/DD1
Run Time: 122 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children, Adult Language, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Columbia TriStar
This gripping 1979
drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened.
Kimberly Wells (
Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news.
Wells and cameraman
Richard Adams (
Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer
Jack Godell (
Jack Lemmon). While
Wells and
Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station,
Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the "China syndrome" of the title), to the station's soundman to deliver to
Wells and
Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown,
Godell takes over the plant's control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant's management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film's clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore.
~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
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